I am so peeved June 17, 2008

I started working on something finally.  It’s taken me a week or two to knit through some swatches (of which only 1 survived) and I discovered one that works well and looks cool.  I was using US 8 needles and a baby blue colored yarn to knit this pattern and I intended to make it a blanket.  On Saturday I casted on 120 stitches and went to work.  By tonight I had completed the first 16 rows (it took me forever because I pretended I was 21 again over the weekend and didn’t do much else besides eat a lot and tend to a hangover) and managed to take a few pictures to prove my triumph.  Good thing I did that because as I worked the next 3 rows, I notice that somehow things had gotten flip flopped.  Instead of my stitches continuing in the same pattern, they were now reversed.

This happened to me time and time again as I knitted the brown purse for a girlfriend.  So I’m not really surprised, just really annoyed.  But I knew that I could carefully rip out my stitches and save my project.  Carefully I pulled out 3 rows and began to slip my needle through the orphaned stitches.  12 stitches in I completely botched it and lost countless stitches that I am honestly in no mood to hunt for.

I do intend to try again.  Except this next time I will use smaller needles and try very hard to keep my tension the same.  This happens to me with cable knit, that each row of cables is uniquely different and you can’t always see the pattern as clearly.  I’m hoping that using smaller needles will help.

I know, looks nothing like the picture from Lion Brand Yarn, right?  *sigh*  Some days I really want to give up knitting because I feel like I’m absolutely no good at it.  But then that feisty part of me that refuses to be dragged down and declared a failure (by myself) jumps right back up again and ferociously attacks a new project with my pointy sticks.  Still doesn’t change the fact that half the time my creations look nothing like the picture, but I always just feel relieved I finished something that doesn’t look like a cat barfed it up.